New Danny Brocklehurst Drama for BBC One

LONDON: BBC One has given the go-ahead to a new four-part drama from BAFTA-winning writer Danny Brocklehurst, adapted from the books by Mark Billingham.

In The Dark focuses on female detective Helen Weeks and her journey toward motherhood. The four-parter will cover two separate stories. In the first, Weeks goes back to her hometown to help her best friend from school, whose husband has been arrested for abducting two young girls. In the second, Weeks, now far along in her pregnancy, grapples with unexpected tragedy that pulls her into the underbelly of urban Manchester.

Polly Hill, controller of BBC drama commissioning, said, "The combination of Danny Brocklehurst's incredible writing, Mark Billingham's fantastic stories and BBC Drama North producing will ensure In The Dark is a contemporary and surprising drama for our BBC One audience."

Brocklehurst noted: “I'm delighted to be continuing my relationship with BBC One, bringing to life these wonderful Mark Billingham thrillers. For me, crime drama is only interesting when it is told through character and in Helen Weeks, Mark has created a brilliant central character: a ballsy, funny, outspoken police woman who finds herself on the cusp of motherhood and has to grudgingly accept the vulnerability that brings to her. The key theme of the drama—how well do we really know those closest to us?—is a theme I find endlessly fascinating, and the fact that Helen's own life has secrets and duplicity makes the drama all the more interesting.”

Filming will begin in 2016.